In general, local area networks interconnect via cables. Such cables are, however, expensive to install even in high-density office buildings, and would be even more expensive in low-density neighborhoods. They are also subject to physical disruption.
Turning now to available home security systems, many provide only a local action in response to a breach of security, such as by turning on an alarm or turning on the lights. If no one is home, and no neighbor notices, such local action is relatively ineffective. Others provide for transmission of information concerning a security breach to some central station via the telephone lines connected to the home the security of which has been breached. However, such land lines are subject to disruption, via deliberate cutting or weather-felled trees, for example. Two-way, long-distance radios can, of course, be used to act upon breaches. However, such radios are expensive, require an FCC license, and almost invariably utilize a radio channel shared by an indefinitely arge number of parties.
The neighborhood security network provided by the invention serves to supply local alarms in more than one home for any breach in a given home, and thus need not report to a central station. Where optionally arranged to so report, it is adapted to make available all the phone lines connected to the homes in the network to report a breach in any given home. It may also utilize but a single two-way long-distance fm transceiver to report to a central station a breach in any given home, thus spreading the cost of such transceiver among all the homes in the network, and minimizing potential licensing difficulties.
Turning next to public-utility-related usage, utility-originated commands for home load control are now typically transmitted over either phone lines or power lines. Both are slow. Further, both are subject to physical disruption, and both present the possibility of spurious signals, or cross-talk, or the like. Occasionally, expensive one-way UHF radios are used, and, of course, even more expensive two-way radios requiring licenses could also be used.
With regard to power usage, on the other hand, electric and gas meters are normally read by human eye by a reader actually visiting the meter. In recent years, a number of schemes have been contemplated to accumulate usage data, as by counting wheel revolutions per unit time and storing such information as a preliminary necessity for actually automatically transmitting such information upon command of a remote central station. Such could be done via power or phone lines, with the same above-mentioned potential problems. Similarly, an expensive two-way long-distance radio would be supplied to each home, though a license would still be required.
The neighborhood network of the invention can readily serve both purposes, with communication with a remote central station provided by a single, licensed transceiver per neighborhood, the cost of which is shared among up to sixteen homss. Outbound power usage data or inbound load control commands can be passed respectively from or to individual homes via the serially linked lower power, license-free FM transceivers in each home.